Automatic grouping of similar applications and devices on a network map

ABSTRACT

An embodiment may involve a managed network containing computing devices. The computing devices may be respectively associated with unqualified domain names. One or more server devices may be disposed within a remote network management platform that manages the managed network. These server devices may be configured to: probe the managed network, by way of a proxy server application disposed within the managed network, to obtain information related to applications operating on the computing devices, network connectivity of the computing devices, and representations of the unqualified domain names; obtain a regular expression; determine a subset of the computing devices in the managed network on which a particular application is operating and for which the respectively associated unqualified domain names match the regular expression; and generate a map of the managed network in which the subset of the computing devices is represented as a grouped node instead of individual nodes.

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This disclosure is a continuation of and claims priority to U.S.application Ser. No. 15/666,164, filed on Aug. 1, 2017, which is hereinincorporated by reference in their entireties.

BACKGROUND

Computer networks may involve dozens or hundreds of computing devices,each operating one or more software applications. These devices andapplications may, in combination with one another, support and/orfacilitate higher-level or end-to-end services. Network mapping toolscan be used to provide visual representations of these devices andapplications, as well as the connectivity therebetween. For instance,various devices and/or applications may be represented as nodes in agraph, and the connectivity of these nodes may be represented as edgesof the graph.

As the size of networks grow, however, these network mapping toolsbecome less useful, as the sheer number of nodes and connections is toogreat to be represented on a computer screen. Also, even if all of sucha visual representation can fit onto a screen, it may be too complex andintricate to be of practical use.

SUMMARY

The embodiments herein improve upon network mapping technology byintelligently grouping nodes representing devices and/or applicationsbased on regular expressions that match their respective unqualifieddomain names, or other names or tags associated with these devicesand/or applications. In doing so, complex network maps can berepresented in a significantly simpler fashion, while still providing acomprehensive view of the network and its devices and applications.

Accordingly, a first example embodiment may involve a managed networkcontaining a plurality of computing devices. The plurality of computingdevices may be respectively associated with unqualified domain names.This embodiment may also involve a proxy server application disposedwithin the managed network, and one or more server devices disposedwithin a remote network management platform that manages the managednetwork. The one or more server devices may be configured to: probe themanaged network, by way of the proxy server application, to obtaininformation related to applications operating on the plurality ofcomputing devices, network connectivity of the plurality of computingdevices, and representations of the unqualified domain names; obtain aregular expression; determine a subset of the plurality of computingdevices in the managed network on which a particular application of theapplications is operating and for which the respectively associatedunqualified domain names match the regular expression; generate a map ofthe managed network, where the applications operating on the pluralityof computing devices are represented as individual nodes in the map,where edges between the individual nodes are defined based on thenetwork connectivity of the plurality of computing devices, and wherethe subset of the plurality of computing devices is represented as agrouped node instead of individual nodes; and provide, for display on aclient device, a representation of the map.

A second example embodiment may involve probing, by a computing system,a managed network to obtain information related to applicationsoperating on a plurality of computing devices on the managed network,network connectivity of the plurality of computing devices, andrepresentations of unqualified domain names respectively associated withthe plurality of computing devices. This embodiment may also involveobtaining, by the computing system, a regular expression. Thisembodiment may further involve determining, by the computing system, asubset of the plurality of computing devices in the managed network onwhich a particular application of the applications is operating and forwhich the respectively associated unqualified domain names match theregular expression. This embodiment may additionally involve generating,by the computing system, a map of the managed network. The applicationsoperating on the plurality of computing devices may be represented asindividual nodes in the map, edges between the individual nodes may bedefined based on the network connectivity of the plurality of computingdevices, and the subset of the plurality of computing devices may berepresented as a grouped node instead of individual nodes. Thisembodiment may also involve providing, by the computing system and fordisplay on a client device, a representation of the map.

In a third example embodiment, an article of manufacture may include anon-transitory computer-readable medium, having stored thereon programinstructions that, upon execution by a computing system, cause thecomputing system to perform operations in accordance with the firstand/or second example embodiment.

In a fourth example embodiment, a computing system may include at leastone processor, as well as memory and program instructions. The programinstructions may be stored in the memory, and upon execution by the atleast one processor, cause the computing system to perform operations inaccordance with the first and/or second example embodiment.

In a fifth example embodiment, a system may include various means forcarrying out each of the operations of the first and/or second exampleembodiment.

These as well as other embodiments, aspects, advantages, andalternatives will become apparent to those of ordinary skill in the artby reading the following detailed description, with reference whereappropriate to the accompanying drawings. Further, this summary andother descriptions and figures provided herein are intended toillustrate embodiments by way of example only and, as such, thatnumerous variations are possible. For instance, structural elements andprocess steps can be rearranged, combined, distributed, eliminated, orotherwise changed, while remaining within the scope of the embodimentsas claimed.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 illustrates a schematic drawing of a computing device, inaccordance with example embodiments.

FIG. 2 illustrates a schematic drawing of a server device cluster, inaccordance with example embodiments.

FIG. 3 depicts a remote network management architecture, in accordancewith example embodiments.

FIG. 4 depicts a communication environment involving a remote networkmanagement architecture, in accordance with example embodiments.

FIG. 5A depicts another communication environment involving a remotenetwork management architecture, in accordance with example embodiments.

FIG. 5B is a flow chart, in accordance with example embodiments.

FIG. 6A depicts a network map, in accordance with example embodiments.

FIG. 6B depicts a network map with grouping, in accordance with exampleembodiments.

FIG. 6C depicts a network map with grouping, in accordance with exampleembodiments.

FIG. 6D depicts a network map with an expanded group, in accordance withexample embodiments.

FIG. 7 is a flow chart, in accordance with example embodiments.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Example methods, devices, and systems are described herein. It should beunderstood that the words “example” and “exemplary” are used herein tomean “serving as an example, instance, or illustration.” Any embodimentor feature described herein as being an “example” or “exemplary” is notnecessarily to be construed as preferred or advantageous over otherembodiments or features unless stated as such. Thus, other embodimentscan be utilized and other changes can be made without departing from thescope of the subject matter presented herein.

Accordingly, the example embodiments described herein are not meant tobe limiting. It will be readily understood that the aspects of thepresent disclosure, as generally described herein, and illustrated inthe figures, can be arranged, substituted, combined, separated, anddesigned in a wide variety of different configurations. For example, theseparation of features into “client” and “server” components may occurin a number of ways.

Further, unless context suggests otherwise, the features illustrated ineach of the figures may be used in combination with one another. Thus,the figures should be generally viewed as component aspects of one ormore overall embodiments, with the understanding that not allillustrated features are necessary for each embodiment.

Additionally, any enumeration of elements, blocks, or steps in thisspecification or the claims is for purposes of clarity. Thus, suchenumeration should not be interpreted to require or imply that theseelements, blocks, or steps adhere to a particular arrangement or arecarried out in a particular order.

I. INTRODUCTION

A large enterprise is a complex entity with many interrelatedoperations. Some of these are found across the enterprise, such as humanresources (HR), supply chain, information technology (IT), and finance.However, each enterprise also has its own unique operations that provideessential capabilities and/or create competitive advantages.

To support widely-implemented operations, enterprises typically useoff-the-shelf software applications, such as customer relationshipmanagement (CRM) and human capital management (HCM) packages. However,they may also need custom software applications to meet their own uniquerequirements. A large enterprise often has dozens or hundreds of thesecustom software applications. Nonetheless, the advantages provided bythe embodiments herein are not limited to large enterprises and may beapplicable to an enterprise, or any other type of organization, of anysize.

Many such software applications are developed by individual departmentswithin the enterprise. These range from simple spreadsheets tocustom-built software tools and databases. But the proliferation ofsiloed custom software applications has numerous disadvantages. Itnegatively impacts an enterprise's ability to run and grow its business,innovate, and meet regulatory requirements. The enterprise may find itdifficult to integrate, streamline and enhance its operations due tolack of a single system that unifies its subsystems and data.

To efficiently create custom applications, enterprises would benefitfrom a remotely-hosted application platform that eliminates unnecessarydevelopment complexity. The goal of such a platform would be to reducetime-consuming, repetitive application development tasks so thatsoftware engineers and individuals in other roles can focus ondeveloping unique, high-value features.

In order to achieve this goal, the concept of Application Platform as aService (aPaaS) is introduced, to intelligently automate workflowsthroughout the enterprise. An aPaaS system is hosted remotely from theenterprise, but may access data, applications, and services within theenterprise by way of secure connections. Such an aPaaS system may have anumber of advantageous capabilities and characteristics. Theseadvantages and characteristics may be able to improve the enterprise'soperations and workflow for IT, HR, CRM, customer service, applicationdevelopment, and security.

The aPaaS system may support development and execution ofmodel-view-controller (MVC) applications. MVC applications divide theirfunctionality into three interconnected parts (model, view, andcontroller) in order to isolate representations of information from themanner in which the information is presented to the user, therebyallowing for efficient code reuse and parallel development. Theseapplications may be web-based, and offer create, read, update, delete(CRUD) capabilities. This allows new applications to be built on acommon application infrastructure.

The aPaaS system may support standardized application components, suchas a standardized set of widgets for graphical user interface (GUI)development. In this way, applications built using the aPaaS system havea common look and feel. Other software components and modules may bestandardized as well. In some cases, this look and feel can be brandedor skinned with an enterprise's custom logos and/or color schemes.

The aPaaS system may support the ability to configure the behavior ofapplications using metadata. This allows application behaviors to berapidly adapted to meet specific needs. Such an approach reducesdevelopment time and increases flexibility. Further, the aPaaS systemmay support GUI tools that facilitate metadata creation and management,thus reducing errors in the metadata.

The aPaaS system may support clearly-defined interfaces betweenapplications, so that software developers can avoid unwantedinter-application dependencies. Thus, the aPaaS system may implement aservice layer in which persistent state information and other data isstored.

The aPaaS system may support a rich set of integration features so thatthe applications thereon can interact with legacy applications andthird-party applications. For instance, the aPaaS system may support acustom employee-onboarding system that integrates with legacy HR, IT,and accounting systems.

The aPaaS system may support enterprise-grade security. Furthermore,since the aPaaS system may be remotely hosted, it should also utilizesecurity procedures when it interacts with systems in the enterprise orthird-party networks and services hosted outside of the enterprise. Forexample, the aPaaS system may be configured to share data amongst theenterprise and other parties to detect and identify common securitythreats.

Other features, functionality, and advantages of an aPaaS system mayexist. This description is for purpose of example and is not intended tobe limiting.

As an example of the aPaaS development process, a software developer maybe tasked to create a new application using the aPaaS system. First, thedeveloper may define the data model, which specifies the types of datathat the application uses and the relationships therebetween. Then, viaa GUI of the aPaaS system, the developer enters (e.g., uploads) the datamodel. The aPaaS system automatically creates all of the correspondingdatabase tables, fields, and relationships, which can then be accessedvia an object-oriented services layer.

In addition, the aPaaS system can also build a fully-functional MVCapplication with client-side interfaces and server-side CRUD logic. Thisgenerated application may serve as the basis of further development forthe user. Advantageously, the developer does not have to spend a largeamount of time on basic application functionality. Further, since theapplication may be web-based, it can be accessed from anyInternet-enabled client device. Alternatively or additionally, a localcopy of the application may be able to be accessed, for instance, whenInternet service is not available.

The aPaaS system may also support a rich set of pre-definedfunctionality that can be added to applications. These features includesupport for searching, email, templating, workflow design, reporting,analytics, social media, scripting, mobile-friendly output, andcustomized GUIs.

The following embodiments describe architectural and functional aspectsof example aPaaS systems, as well as the features and advantagesthereof.

II. EXAMPLE COMPUTING DEVICES AND CLOUD-BASED COMPUTING ENVIRONMENTS

FIG. 1 is a simplified block diagram exemplifying a computing device100, illustrating some of the components that could be included in acomputing device arranged to operate in accordance with the embodimentsherein. Computing device 100 could be a client device (e.g., a deviceactively operated by a user), a server device (e.g., a device thatprovides computational services to client devices), or some other typeof computational platform. Some server devices may operate as clientdevices from time to time in order to perform particular operations.

In this example, computing device 100 includes processor(s) 102(referred to as “processor 102” for sake of simplicity), memory 104,network interface(s) 106, and an input/output unit 108, all of which maybe coupled by a system bus 110 or a similar mechanism. In someembodiments, computing device 100 may include other components and/orperipheral devices (e.g., detachable storage, printers, and so on).

Processor 102 may be any type of computer processing unit, such as acentral processing unit (CPU), a co-processor (e.g., a mathematics,graphics, or encryption co-processor), a digital signal processor (DSP),a network processor, and/or a form of integrated circuit or controllerthat performs processor operations. In some cases, processor 102 may bea single-core processor, and in other cases, processor 102 may be amulti-core processor with multiple independent processing units.Processor 102 may also include register memory for temporarily storinginstructions being executed and related data, as well as cache memoryfor temporarily storing recently-used instructions and data.

Memory 104 may be any form of computer-usable memory, including but notlimited to register memory and cache memory (which may be incorporatedinto processor 102), as well as random access memory (RAM), read-onlymemory (ROM), and non-volatile memory (e.g., flash memory, hard diskdrives, solid state drives, compact discs (CDs), digital video discs(DVDs), and/or tape storage). Other types of memory may includebiological memory.

Memory 104 may store program instructions and/or data on which programinstructions may operate. By way of example, memory 104 may store theseprogram instructions on a non-transitory, computer-readable medium, suchthat the instructions are executable by processor 102 to carry out anyof the methods, processes, or operations disclosed in this specificationor the accompanying drawings.

As shown in FIG. 1, memory 104 may include firmware 104A, kernel 104B,and/or applications 104C. Firmware 104A may be program code used to bootor otherwise initiate some or all of computing device 100. Kernel 104Bmay be an operating system, including modules for memory management,scheduling and management of processes, input/output, and communication.Kernel 104B may also include device drivers that allow the operatingsystem to communicate with the hardware modules (e.g., memory units,networking interfaces, ports, and busses), of computing device 100.Applications 104C may be one or more user-space software programs, suchas web browsers or email clients, as well as any software libraries usedby these programs. Memory 104 may also store data used by these andother programs and applications.

Network interface(s) 106 may take the form of a wireline interface, suchas Ethernet (e.g., Fast Ethernet, Gigabit Ethernet, and so on). Networkinterface(s) 106 may also support communication over non-Ethernet media,such as coaxial cables or power lines, or over wide-area media, such asSynchronous Optical Networking (SONET) or digital subscriber line (DSL)technologies. Network interface(s) 106 may also take the form of awireless interface, such as IEEE 802.11 (Wifi), BLUETOOTH®, globalpositioning system (GPS), or a wide-area wireless interface. However,other forms of physical layer interfaces and other types of standard orproprietary communication protocols may be used over networkinterface(s) 106. Furthermore, network interface(s) 106 may comprisemultiple physical interfaces. For instance, some embodiments ofcomputing device 100 may include Ethernet, BLUETOOTH®, and Wifiinterfaces.

Input/output unit 108 may facilitate user and peripheral deviceinteraction with example computing device 100. Input/output unit 108 mayinclude one or more types of input devices, such as a keyboard, a mouse,a touch screen, and so on. Similarly, input/output unit 108 may includeone or more types of output devices, such as a screen, monitor, printer,and/or one or more light emitting diodes (LEDs). Additionally oralternatively, computing device 100 may communicate with other devicesusing a universal serial bus (USB) or high-definition multimediainterface (HDMI) port interface, for example.

In some embodiments, one or more instances of computing device 100 maybe deployed to support an aPaaS architecture. The exact physicallocation, connectivity, and configuration of these computing devices maybe unknown and/or unimportant to client devices. Accordingly, thecomputing devices may be referred to as “cloud-based” devices that maybe housed at various remote data center locations.

FIG. 2 depicts a cloud-based server cluster 200 in accordance withexample embodiments. In FIG. 2, operations of a computing device (e.g.,computing device 100) may be distributed between server devices 202,data storage 204, and routers 206, all of which may be connected bylocal cluster network 208. The number of server devices 202, datastorages 204, and routers 206 in server cluster 200 may depend on thecomputing task(s) and/or applications assigned to server cluster 200.

For example, server devices 202 can be configured to perform variouscomputing tasks of computing device 100. Thus, computing tasks can bedistributed among one or more of server devices 202. To the extent thatthese computing tasks can be performed in parallel, such a distributionof tasks may reduce the total time to complete these tasks and return aresult. For purpose of simplicity, both server cluster 200 andindividual server devices 202 may be referred to as a “server device.”This nomenclature should be understood to imply that one or moredistinct server devices, data storage devices, and cluster routers maybe involved in server device operations.

Data storage 204 may be data storage arrays that include drive arraycontrollers configured to manage read and write access to groups of harddisk drives and/or solid state drives. The drive array controllers,alone or in conjunction with server devices 202, may also be configuredto manage backup or redundant copies of the data stored in data storage204 to protect against drive failures or other types of failures thatprevent one or more of server devices 202 from accessing units ofcluster data storage 204. Other types of memory aside from drives may beused.

Routers 206 may include networking equipment configured to provideinternal and external communications for server cluster 200. Forexample, routers 206 may include one or more packet-switching and/orrouting devices (including switches and/or gateways) configured toprovide (i) network communications between server devices 202 and datastorage 204 via cluster network 208, and/or (ii) network communicationsbetween the server cluster 200 and other devices via communication link210 to network 212.

Additionally, the configuration of cluster routers 206 can be based atleast in part on the data communication requirements of server devices202 and data storage 204, the latency and throughput of the localcluster network 208, the latency, throughput, and cost of communicationlink 210, and/or other factors that may contribute to the cost, speed,fault-tolerance, resiliency, efficiency and/or other design goals of thesystem architecture.

As a possible example, data storage 204 may include any form ofdatabase, such as a structured query language (SQL) database. Varioustypes of data structures may store the information in such a database,including but not limited to tables, arrays, lists, trees, and tuples.Furthermore, any databases in data storage 204 may be monolithic ordistributed across multiple physical devices.

Server devices 202 may be configured to transmit data to and receivedata from cluster data storage 204. This transmission and retrieval maytake the form of SQL queries or other types of database queries, and theoutput of such queries, respectively. Additional text, images, video,and/or audio may be included as well. Furthermore, server devices 202may organize the received data into web page representations. Such arepresentation may take the form of a markup language, such as thehypertext markup language (HTML), the extensible markup language (XML),or some other standardized or proprietary format. Moreover, serverdevices 202 may have the capability of executing various types ofcomputerized scripting languages, such as but not limited to Perl,Python, PHP Hypertext Preprocessor (PHP), Active Server Pages (ASP),JavaScript, and so on. Computer program code written in these languagesmay facilitate the providing of web pages to client devices, as well asclient device interaction with the web pages.

III. EXAMPLE REMOTE NETWORK MANAGEMENT ARCHITECTURE

FIG. 3 depicts a remote network management architecture, in accordancewith example embodiments. This architecture includes three maincomponents, managed network 300, remote network management platform 320,and third-party networks 340, all connected by way of Internet 350.

Managed network 300 may be, for example, an enterprise network used by abusiness for computing and communications tasks, as well as storage ofdata. Thus, managed network 300 may include various client devices 302,server devices 304, routers 306, virtual machines 308, firewall 310,and/or proxy servers 312. Client devices 302 may be embodied bycomputing device 100, server devices 304 may be embodied by computingdevice 100 or server cluster 200, and routers 306 may be any type ofrouter, switch, or gateway.

Virtual machines 308 may be embodied by one or more of computing device100 or server cluster 200. In general, a virtual machine is an emulationof a computing system, and mimics the functionality (e.g., processor,memory, and communication resources) of a physical computer. Onephysical computing system, such as server cluster 200, may support up tothousands of individual virtual machines. In some embodiments, virtualmachines 308 may be managed by a centralized server device orapplication that facilitates allocation of physical computing resourcesto individual virtual machines, as well as performance and errorreporting. Enterprises often employ virtual machines in order toallocate computing resources in an efficient, as needed fashion.Providers of virtualized computing systems include VMWARE® andMICROSOFT®.

Firewall 310 may be one or more specialized routers or server devicesthat protect managed network 300 from unauthorized attempts to accessthe devices, applications, and services therein, while allowingauthorized communication that is initiated from managed network 300.Firewall 310 may also provide intrusion detection, web filtering, virusscanning, application-layer gateways, and other applications orservices. In some embodiments not shown in FIG. 3, managed network 300may include one or more virtual private network (VPN) gateways withwhich it communicates with remote network management platform 320 (seebelow).

Managed network 300 may also include one or more proxy servers 312. Anembodiment of proxy servers 312 may be a server device that facilitatescommunication and movement of data between managed network 300, remotenetwork management platform 320, and third-party networks 340. Inparticular, proxy servers 312 may be able to establish and maintainsecure communication sessions with one or more customer instances ofremote network management platform 320. By way of such a session, remotenetwork management platform 320 may be able to discover and manageaspects of the architecture and configuration of managed network 300 andits components. Possibly with the assistance of proxy servers 312,remote network management platform 320 may also be able to discover andmanage aspects of third-party networks 340 that are used by managednetwork 300.

Firewalls, such as firewall 310, typically deny all communicationsessions that are incoming by way of Internet 350, unless such a sessionwas ultimately initiated from behind the firewall (i.e., from a deviceon managed network 300) or the firewall has been explicitly configuredto support the session. By placing proxy servers 312 behind firewall 310(e.g., within managed network 300 and protected by firewall 310), proxyservers 312 may be able to initiate these communication sessions throughfirewall 310. Thus, firewall 310 might not have to be specificallyconfigured to support incoming sessions from remote network managementplatform 320, thereby avoiding potential security risks to managednetwork 300.

In some cases, managed network 300 may consist of a few devices and asmall number of networks. In other deployments, managed network 300 mayspan multiple physical locations and include hundreds of networks andhundreds of thousands of devices. Thus, the architecture depicted inFIG. 3 is capable of scaling up or down by orders of magnitude.

Furthermore, depending on the size, architecture, and connectivity ofmanaged network 300, a varying number of proxy servers 312 may bedeployed therein. For example, each one of proxy servers 312 may beresponsible for communicating with remote network management platform320 regarding a portion of managed network 300. Alternatively oradditionally, sets of two or more proxy servers may be assigned to sucha portion of managed network 300 for purposes of load balancing,redundancy, and/or high availability.

Remote network management platform 320 is a hosted environment thatprovides aPaaS services to users, particularly to the operators ofmanaged network 300. These services may take the form of web-basedportals, for instance. Thus, a user can securely access remote networkmanagement platform 320 from, for instance, client devices 302, orpotentially from a client device outside of managed network 300. By wayof the web-based portals, users may design, test, and deployapplications, generate reports, view analytics, and perform other tasks.

As shown in FIG. 3, remote network management platform 320 includes fourcustomer instances 322, 324, 326, and 328. Each of these instances mayrepresent a set of web portals, services, and applications (e.g., awholly-functioning aPaaS system) available to a particular customer. Insome cases, a single customer may use multiple customer instances. Forexample, managed network 300 may be an enterprise customer of remotenetwork management platform 320, and may use customer instances 322,324, and 326. The reason for providing multiple instances to onecustomer is that the customer may wish to independently develop, test,and deploy its applications and services. Thus, customer instance 322may be dedicated to application development related to managed network300, customer instance 324 may be dedicated to testing theseapplications, and customer instance 326 may be dedicated to the liveoperation of tested applications and services.

The multi-instance architecture of remote network management platform320 is in contrast to conventional multi-tenant architectures, overwhich multi-instance architectures have several advantages. Inmulti-tenant architectures, data from different customers (e.g.,enterprises) are comingled in a single database. While these customers'data are separate from one another, the separation is enforced by thesoftware that operates the single database. As a consequence, a securitybreach in this system may impact all customers' data, creatingadditional risk, especially for entities subject to governmental,healthcare, and/or financial regulation. Furthermore, any databaseoperations that impact one customer will likely impact all customerssharing that database. Thus, if there is an outage due to hardware orsoftware errors, this outage affects all such customers. Likewise, ifthe database is to be upgraded to meet the needs of one customer, itwill be unavailable to all customers during the upgrade process. Often,such maintenance windows will be long, due to the size of the shareddatabase

In contrast, the multi-instance architecture provides each customer withits own database in a dedicated computing instance. This preventscomingling of customer data, and allows each instance to beindependently managed. For example, when one customer's instanceexperiences an outage due to errors or an upgrade, other customerinstances are not impacted. Maintenance down time is limited because thedatabase only contains one customer's data. Further, the simpler designof the multi-instance architecture allows redundant copies of eachcustomer database and instance to be deployed in a geographicallydiverse fashion. This facilitates high availability, where the liveversion of the customer's instance can be moved when faults are detectedor maintenance is being performed.

In order to support multiple customer instances in an efficient fashion,remote network management platform 320 may implement a plurality ofthese instances on a single hardware platform. For example, when theaPaaS system is implemented on a server cluster such as server cluster200, it may operate a virtual machine that dedicates varying amounts ofcomputational, storage, and communication resources to instances. Butfull virtualization of server cluster 200 might not be necessary, andother mechanisms may be used to separate instances. In some examples,each instance may have a dedicated account and one or more dedicateddatabases on server cluster 200. Alternatively, customer instance 322may span multiple physical devices.

In some cases, a single server cluster of remote network managementplatform 320 may support multiple independent enterprises. Furthermore,as described below, remote network management platform 320 may includemultiple server clusters deployed in geographically diverse data centersin order to facilitate load balancing, redundancy, and/or highavailability.

Third-party networks 340 may be remote server devices (e.g., a pluralityof server clusters such as server cluster 200) that can be used foroutsourced computational, data storage, communication, and servicehosting operations. These servers may be virtualized (i.e., the serversmay be virtual machines). Examples of third-party networks 340 mayinclude AMAZON WEB SERVICES® and MICROSOFT® Azure. Like remote networkmanagement platform 320, multiple server clusters supporting third-partynetworks 340 may be deployed at geographically diverse locations forpurposes of load balancing, redundancy, and/or high availability.

Managed network 300 may use one or more of third-party networks 340 todeploy applications and services to its clients and customers. Forinstance, if managed network 300 provides online music streamingservices, third-party networks 340 may store the music files and provideweb interface and streaming capabilities. In this way, the enterprise ofmanaged network 300 does not have to build and maintain its own serversfor these operations.

Remote network management platform 320 may include modules thatintegrate with third-party networks 340 to expose virtual machines andmanaged services therein to managed network 300. The modules may allowusers to request virtual resources and provide flexible reporting forthird-party networks 340. In order to establish this functionality, auser from managed network 300 might first establish an account withthird-party networks 340, and request a set of associated resources.Then, the user may enter the account information into the appropriatemodules of remote network management platform 320. These modules maythen automatically discover the manageable resources in the account, andalso provide reports related to usage, performance, and billing.

Internet 350 may represent a portion of the global Internet. However,Internet 350 may alternatively represent a different type of network,such as a private wide-area or local-area packet-switched network.

FIG. 4 further illustrates the communication environment between managednetwork 300 and customer instance 322, and introduces additionalfeatures and alternative embodiments. In FIG. 4, customer instance 322is replicated across data centers 400A and 400B. These data centers maybe geographically distant from one another, perhaps in different citiesor different countries. Each data center includes support equipment thatfacilitates communication with managed network 300, as well as remoteusers.

In data center 400A, network traffic to and from external devices flowseither through VPN gateway 402A or firewall 404A. VPN gateway 402A maybe peered with VPN gateway 412 of managed network 300 by way of asecurity protocol such as Internet Protocol Security (IPSEC). Firewall404A may be configured to allow access from authorized users, such asuser 414 and remote user 416, and to deny access to unauthorized users.By way of firewall 404A, these users may access customer instance 322,and possibly other customer instances. Load balancer 406A may be used todistribute traffic amongst one or more physical or virtual serverdevices that host customer instance 322. Load balancer 406A may simplifyuser access by hiding the internal configuration of data center 400A,(e.g., customer instance 322) from client devices. For instance, ifcustomer instance 322 includes multiple physical or virtual computingdevices that share access to multiple databases, load balancer 406A maydistribute network traffic and processing tasks across these computingdevices and databases so that no one computing device or database issignificantly busier than the others. In some embodiments, customerinstance 322 may include VPN gateway 402A, firewall 404A, and loadbalancer 406A.

Data center 400B may include its own versions of the components in datacenter 400A. Thus, VPN gateway 402B, firewall 404B, and load balancer406B may perform the same or similar operations as VPN gateway 402A,firewall 404A, and load balancer 406A, respectively. Further, by way ofreal-time or near-real-time database replication and/or otheroperations, customer instance 322 may exist simultaneously in datacenters 400A and 400B.

Data centers 400A and 400B as shown in FIG. 4 may facilitate redundancyand high availability. In the configuration of FIG. 4, data center 400Ais active and data center 400B is passive. Thus, data center 400A isserving all traffic to and from managed network 300, while the versionof customer instance 322 in data center 400B is being updated innear-real-time. Other configurations, such as one in which both datacenters are active, may be supported.

Should data center 400A fail in some fashion or otherwise becomeunavailable to users, data center 400B can take over as the active datacenter. For example, domain name system (DNS) servers that associate adomain name of customer instance 322 with one or more Internet Protocol(IP) addresses of data center 400A may re-associate the domain name withone or more IP addresses of data center 400B. After this re-associationcompletes (which may take less than one second or several seconds),users may access customer instance 322 by way of data center 400B.

FIG. 4 also illustrates a possible configuration of managed network 300.As noted above, proxy servers 312 and user 414 may access customerinstance 322 through firewall 310. Proxy servers 312 may also accessconfiguration items 410. In FIG. 4, configuration items 410 may refer toany or all of client devices 302, server devices 304, routers 306, andvirtual machines 308, any applications or services executing thereon, aswell as relationships between devices, applications, and services. Thus,the term “configuration items” may be shorthand for any physical orvirtual device, or any application or service remotely discoverable ormanaged by customer instance 322, or relationships between discovereddevices, applications, and services. Configuration items may berepresented in a configuration management database (CMDB) of customerinstance 322.

As noted above, VPN gateway 412 may provide a dedicated VPN to VPNgateway 402A. Such a VPN may be helpful when there is a significantamount of traffic between managed network 300 and customer instance 322,or security policies otherwise suggest or require use of a VPN betweenthese sites. In some embodiments, any device in managed network 300and/or customer instance 322 that directly communicates via the VPN isassigned a public IP address. Other devices in managed network 300and/or customer instance 322 may be assigned private IP addresses (e.g.,IP addresses selected from the 10.0.0.0-10.255.255.255 or192.168.0.0-192.168.255.255 ranges, represented in shorthand as subnets10.0.0.0/8 and 192.168.0.0/16, respectively).

IV. EXAMPLE DEVICE, APPLICATION, AND SERVICE DISCOVERY

In order for remote network management platform 320 to administer thedevices applications, and services of managed network 300, remotenetwork management platform 320 may first determine what devices arepresent in managed network 300, the configurations and operationalstatuses of these devices, and the applications and services provided bythe devices, and well as the relationships between discovered devices,applications, and services. As noted above, each device, application,service, and relationship may be referred to as a configuration item.The process of defining configuration items within managed network 300is referred to as discovery, and may be facilitated at least in part byproxy servers 312.

For purpose of the embodiments herein, an “application” may refer to aprocess, thread, program, client, server, or any other software thatexecutes on a device. A “service” may refer to a high-level capabilityprovided by multiple applications executing on one or more devicesworking in conjunction with one another. For example, a high-level webservice may involve multiple web application server threads executing onone device and accessing information from a database application thatexecutes on another device.

FIG. 5A provides a logical depiction of how configuration items can bediscovered, as well as how information related to discoveredconfiguration items can be stored. For sake of simplicity, remotenetwork management platform 320, third-party networks 340, and Internet350 are not shown.

In FIG. 5A, CMDB 500 and task list 502 are stored within customerinstance 322. Customer instance 322 may transmit discovery commands toproxy servers 312. In response, proxy servers 312 may transmit probes tovarious devices, applications, and services in managed network 300.These devices, applications, and services may transmit responses toproxy servers 312, and proxy servers 312 may then provide informationregarding discovered configuration items to CMDB 500 for storagetherein. Configuration items stored in CMDB 500 represent theenvironment of managed network 300.

Task list 502 represents a list of activities that proxy servers 312 areto perform on behalf of customer instance 322. As discovery takes place,task list 502 is populated. Proxy servers 312 repeatedly query task list502, obtain the next task therein, and perform this task until task list502 is empty or another stopping condition has been reached.

To facilitate discovery, proxy servers 312 may be configured withinformation regarding one or more subnets in managed network 300 thatare reachable by way of proxy servers 312. For instance, proxy servers312 may be given the IP address range 192.168.0/24 as a subnet. Then,customer instance 322 may store this information in CMDB 500 and placetasks in task list 502 for discovery of devices at each of theseaddresses.

FIG. 5A also depicts devices, applications, and services in managednetwork 300 as configuration items 504, 506, 508, 510, and 512. As notedabove, these configuration items represent a set of physical and/orvirtual devices (e.g., client devices, server devices, routers, orvirtual machines), applications executing thereon (e.g., web servers,email servers, databases, or storage arrays), relationshipstherebetween, as well as services that involve multiple individualconfiguration items.

Placing the tasks in task list 502 may trigger or otherwise cause proxyservers 312 to begin discovery. Alternatively or additionally, discoverymay be manually triggered or automatically triggered based on triggeringevents (e.g., discovery may automatically begin once per day at aparticular time).

In general, discovery may proceed in four logical phases: scanning,classification, identification, and exploration. Each phase of discoveryinvolves various types of probe messages being transmitted by proxyservers 312 to one or more devices in managed network 300. The responsesto these probes may be received and processed by proxy servers 312, andrepresentations thereof may be transmitted to CMDB 500. Thus, each phasecan result in more configuration items being discovered and stored inCMDB 500.

In the scanning phase, proxy servers 312 may probe each IP address inthe specified range of IP addresses for open Transmission ControlProtocol (TCP) and/or User Datagram Protocol (UDP) ports to determinethe general type of device. The presence of such open ports at an IPaddress may indicate that a particular application is operating on thedevice that is assigned the IP address, which in turn may identify theoperating system used by the device. For example, if TCP port 135 isopen, then the device is likely executing a WINDOWS® operating system.Similarly, if TCP port 22 is open, then the device is likely executing aUNIX® operating system, such as LINUX®. If UDP port 161 is open, thenthe device may be able to be further identified through the SimpleNetwork Management Protocol (SNMP). Other possibilities exist. Once thepresence of a device at a particular IP address and its open ports havebeen discovered, these configuration items are saved in CMDB 500.

In the classification phase, proxy servers 312 may further probe eachdiscovered device to determine the version of its operating system. Theprobes used for a particular device are based on information gatheredabout the devices during the scanning phase. For example, if a device isfound with TCP port 22 open, a set of UNIX®-specific probes may be used.Likewise, if a device is found with TCP port 135 open, a set ofWINDOWS®-specific probes may be used. For either case, an appropriateset of tasks may be placed in task list 502 for proxy servers 312 tocarry out. These tasks may result in proxy servers 312 logging on, orotherwise accessing information from the particular device. Forinstance, if TCP port 22 is open, proxy servers 312 may be instructed toinitiate a Secure Shell (SSH) connection to the particular device andobtain information about the operating system thereon from particularlocations in the file system. Based on this information, the operatingsystem may be determined. As an example, a UNIX® device with TCP port 22open may be classified as AIX®, HPUX, LINUX®, MACOS®, or SOLARIS®. Thisclassification information may be stored as one or more configurationitems in CMDB 500.

In the identification phase, proxy servers 312 may determine specificdetails about a classified device. The probes used during this phase maybe based on information gathered about the particular devices during theclassification phase. For example, if a device was classified as LINUX®,as a set of LINUX®-specific probes may be used. Likewise if a device wasclassified as WINDOWS® 2012, as a set of WINDOWS®-2012-specific probesmay be used. As was the case for the classification phase, anappropriate set of tasks may be placed in task list 502 for proxyservers 312 to carry out. These tasks may result in proxy servers 312reading information from the particular device, such as basicinput/output system (BIOS) information, serial numbers, networkinterface information, media access control address(es) assigned tothese network interface(s), IP address(es) used by the particular deviceand so on. This identification information may be stored as one or moreconfiguration items in CMDB 500.

In the exploration phase, proxy servers 312 may determine furtherdetails about the operational state of a classified device. The probesused during this phase may be based on information gathered about theparticular devices during the classification phase and/or theidentification phase. Again, an appropriate set of tasks may be placedin task list 502 for proxy servers 312 to carry out. These tasks mayresult in proxy servers 312 reading additional information from theparticular device, such as processor information, memory information,lists of running processes (applications), and so on. Once more, thediscovered information may be stored as one or more configuration itemsin CMDB 500.

Running discovery on a network device, such as a router, may utilizeSNMP. Instead of or in addition to determining a list of runningprocesses or other application-related information, discovery maydetermine additional subnets known to the router and the operationalstate of the router's network interfaces (e.g., active, inactive, queuelength, number of packets dropped, etc.). The IP addresses of theadditional subnets may be candidates for further discovery procedures.Thus, discovery may progress iteratively or recursively.

Once discovery completes, a snapshot representation of each discovereddevice, application, and service is available in CMDB 500. For example,after discovery, operating system version, hardware configuration andnetwork configuration details for client devices, server devices, androuters in managed network 300, as well as applications executingthereon, may be stored. This collected information may be presented to auser in various ways to allow the user to view the hardware compositionand operational status of devices, as well as the characteristics ofservices that span multiple devices and applications.

Furthermore, CMDB 500 may include entries regarding dependencies andrelationships between configuration items. More specifically, anapplication that is executing on a particular server device, as well asthe services that rely on this application, may be represented as suchin CMDB 500. For instance, suppose that a database application isexecuting on a server device, and that this database application is usedby a new employee onboarding service as well as a payroll service. Thus,if the server device is taken out of operation for maintenance, it isclear that the employee onboarding service and payroll service will beimpacted. Likewise, the dependencies and relationships betweenconfiguration items may be able to represent the services impacted whena particular router fails.

In general, dependencies and relationships between configuration itemsbe displayed on a web-based interface and represented in a hierarchicalfashion. Thus, adding, changing, or removing such dependencies andrelationships may be accomplished by way of this interface.

Furthermore, users from managed network 300 may develop workflows thatallow certain coordinated activities to take place across multiplediscovered devices. For instance, an IT workflow might allow the user tochange the common administrator password to all discovered LINUX®devices in single operation.

In order for discovery to take place in the manner described above,proxy servers 312, CMDB 500, and/or one or more credential stores may beconfigured with credentials for one or more of the devices to bediscovered. Credentials may include any type of information needed inorder to access the devices. These may include userid/password pairs,certificates, and so on. In some embodiments, these credentials may bestored in encrypted fields of CMDB 500. Proxy servers 312 may containthe decryption key for the credentials so that proxy servers 312 can usethese credentials to log on to or otherwise access devices beingdiscovered.

The discovery process is depicted as a flow chart in FIG. 5B. At block520, the task list in the customer instance is populated, for instance,with a range of IP addresses. At block 522, the scanning phase takesplace. Thus, the proxy servers probe the IP addresses for devices usingthese IP addresses, and attempt to determine the operating systems thatare executing on these devices. At block 524, the classification phasetakes place. The proxy servers attempt to determine the operating systemversion of the discovered devices. At block 526, the identificationphase takes place. The proxy servers attempt to determine the hardwareand/or software configuration of the discovered devices. At block 528,the exploration phase takes place. The proxy servers attempt todetermine the operational state and applications executing on thediscovered devices. At block 530, further editing of the configurationitems representing the discovered devices and applications may takeplace. This editing may be automated and/or manual in nature.

The blocks represented in FIG. 5B are for purpose of example. Discoverymay be a highly configurable procedure that can have more or fewerphases, and the operations of each phase may vary. In some cases, one ormore phases may be customized, or may otherwise deviate from theexemplary descriptions above.

V. EXAMPLE NETWORK MAPPING

The discovery procedures described herein are particularly helpful ingenerating network maps. A network map may be a visual representation ona GUI, for instance, that depicts particular applications operating onparticular devices as nodes in a graph. The edges of the graph mayrepresent physical and/or logical network connectivity between thesenodes. An instance of a network map may be tailored to represent thedevices and applications that make up or contribute to the operation ofa service.

Discovery procedures may be used to determine the physical or logicalarrangement of devices on a managed network, as well as the applicationsoperating on these devices. Discovery procedures may also determine therelationships between these devices and applications that defineservices. Alternatively or additionally, services may be manuallydefined after discovery has at least partially completed. From thisinformation, a network map can be derived.

A. Example Email Service Map

FIG. 6A provides an example network map including applications anddevices that make up an email service that supports redundancy andhigh-availability. This map may be generated for display on the screenof a computing device. As noted above, the nodes in the map representapplications operating on devices. These nodes may take the form oficons related to the respective functions of the applications ordevices.

The entry point to the email service, as designated by the largedownward-pointing arrow, may be load balancer 600 (“loadbalancer”). Loadbalancer 600 may be represented with a gear icon, and may operate on adevice with host name maillb.example.com. This host name, as well asother host names herein, may be a partially-qualified or fully-qualifieddomain name in accordance with DNS domain syntax.

Load balancer 600 may distribute incoming requests across mailboxapplications 602, 604, 606, and 608 (“mailbox”) operating on mail serverdevices msrv1.example.com, msrv2.example.com, msrv3.example.com, andmsrv4.example.com, respectively. These mail server devices may berepresented by globe icons on the map. Connectivity between loadbalancer 600 and each of mailbox applications 602, 604, 606, and 608 isrepresented by respective edges.

Mailbox applications 602, 604, 606, and 608 may, for instance, respondto incoming requests for the contents of a user's mail folder, for thecontent of an individual email message, to move an email message fromone folder to another, or to delete an email message. Mailboxapplications 602, 604, 606, and 608 may also receive and processincoming emails for storage by the email service. Other email operationsmay be supported by mailbox applications 602, 604, 606, and 608. Forsake of example, it may be assumed that mailbox applications 602, 604,606, and 608 perform essentially identical operations, and any one ofthese applications may be used to respond to any particular request.

The actual contents of users' email accounts, including email messages,folder arrangements, and other settings, may be stored in one or more ofmail database applications 610, 612, and 614 (“maildb”). Theseapplications may operate on database server devices db0.example.com,db1.example.com, and mdbx.example.com, which are represented by databaseicons on the network map. Connectivity between mailbox applications 602,604, 606, and 608 and each of mail database applications 610, 612, and614 also is represented by respective edges.

Mailbox applications 602, 604, 606, and 608 may retrieve requested datafrom mail database applications 610, 612, and 614, and may also writedata to mail database applications 610, 612, and 614. The data stored bymail database applications 610, 612, and 614 may be replicated acrossall of the database server devices.

As an example of the operation of the email service depicted by the mapof FIG. 6A, an incoming email message may arrive at load balancer 600.This email message may be addressed to an email account (e.g.,user@example.com) supported by the email service. Load balancer 600 mayselect one of mailbox applications 602, 604, 606, and 608 to store theemail message. For instance, load balancer 600 may make this selectionbased on a round-robin procedure, the loads (e.g., CPU, memory, and/ornetwork utilization) reported by mailbox applications 602, 604, 606, and608, randomly, or some combination thereof.

Assuming that load balancer 600 selects mailbox application 604, loadbalancer 600 then transmits the email message to mailbox application604. Mailbox application 604 may perform any necessary mail serverfunctions to process the email message, such as verifying that theaddressee is supported by the email server, validating the source of theemail message, running the email message through a spam filter, and soon. After these procedures, mailbox application 604 may select one ofmail database applications 610, 612, and 614 for storage of the emailmessage. Similar to load balancer 600, mailbox application 604 may makethis selection based on various criteria, including load on maildatabase applications 610, 612, and 614.

Assuming that mailbox application 604 selects mail database application610, mailbox application 604 then transmits the email message to maildatabase application 610. Mail database application 610 may perform anynecessary mail database functions to process and store the emailmessage. For instance, mail database application 610 may store themessage as a compressed file in a file system, and update one or moredatabase tables to represent characteristics of the email message (e.g.,the sender, the size of the message, its importance, where the file isstored, and so on).

When a mail client application (not shown) requests a copy of the emailmessage, this request may also be received by load balancer 600. Loadbalancer 600 may select one of mailbox applications 602, 604, 606, and608 to retrieve the email message. This selection may be made accordingto various criteria, such as any of those discussed above. Assuming thatload balancer 600 selects mailbox application 608, mailbox application608 then selects one of mail database applications 610, 612, and 614.Assuming that mailbox application 608 selects mail database application612, mailbox application 608 requests the email message from maildatabase application 612.

Since data is replicated across mail database applications 610, 612, and614, mail database application 612 is able to identify and retrieve therequested email message. For instance, mail database application 612 maylook up the email message in a database table, from the table determinewhere the email message is stored in its file system, find the emailmessage in the file system, and provide the email message to mailboxapplication 608. Mailbox application 608 may then transmit the emailmessage to the mail client application.

The arrangement of FIG. 6A may vary. For example, more or fewer loadbalancers, mailbox applications, mail database applications, as well astheir associated devices, may be present. Furthermore, additionaldevices may be included, such as storage devices, routers, switches, andso on. Additionally, while FIG. 6A is focused on an example emailservice, similar network maps may be generated and displayed for othertypes of services, such as web services, remote access services,automatic backup services, content delivery services, and so on.

The map displayed in FIG. 6A may be generated according to variousrules. For instance, nodes representing devices of the same type oroperating the same application or type of application may be placed atthe same horizontal level, as in FIG. 6A. Nodes representing the entrypoint of the represented service may be placed at the top of the map,and the vertical arrangement of nodes may roughly correspond to theorder in which the nodes become involved in carrying out operations ofthe service. Nonetheless, as the number of nodes and connections grows,such arrangements may vary for purposes of making presentation of thenetwork map readable.

B. Example Service Map Grouping Based on Regular Expressions

Managed networks, such as managed network 300, may involve dozens orhundreds of computing devices, each operating one or more applications.These devices and applications may, in combination with one another,support and/or facilitate numerous services. Network maps, such as thatof FIG. 6A, are helpful tools in understanding the logical and physicalarrangements of devices and applications involved in service delivery.Nonetheless, the two-dimensional nature of these maps, as well as thelimited screen size of computer screens, can cause network maps tobecome large and complicated. The sheer number of nodes and edgesbecomes too great to be represented on a computer screen. Even if all ofsuch a visual representation can fit onto a screen, it may be toocomplex and intricate to be of practical use.

The embodiments herein introduce mechanisms through which nodes andedges of a network map can be combined in an intelligent fashion, suchthat nodes representing applications with a common function with respectto the higher-level service are grouped. Edges between grouped nodes maybe grouped as well. Consequently, the layout and appearance of networkmaps may be dramatically simplified. Particularly, nodes may be groupedbased on regular expressions that match the unqualified portion of theirdomain names.

Domain names, such as those used in DNS, may take a number of forms. Afully-qualified domain name specifies its exact location in the globalDNS tree. Thus, it includes all relevant domain levels and is thereforeunambiguous in this tree. All domain names appearing in FIG. 6A arefully-qualified. For instance, maillb.example.com, msrv2.example.com,and db0.example.com are all members of the top-level domain “com” andthe second-level domain “example”. An unqualified domain name generallydoes not include a dot (“.”). As examples, maillb, msrv2, and db0 areunqualified domain names. Their positions within the global DNS tree areunknown without their associated top-level and second-level domains.

As a matter of common practice, many network operators provisionapplications and/or devices that have similar functionality with similarunqualified domain names. For instance, in FIG. 6A, mail server devicesmsrv1.example.com, msrv2.example.com, msrv3.example.com, andmsrv4.example.com have unqualified domain names of the general form“msrv[n]”, where the [n] is a digit. Database server devicesdb0.example.com and db1.example.com are named using a similar scheme.

TABLE 1 Meta-Character Meaning {circumflex over ( )} The beginning of astring. $ The end of a string. * Zero or more of the preceding characteror group of characters. + One or more of the preceding character orgroup of characters. ? When immediately following another qualifier,such as *, +, or even ? itself, this meta-character may be viewed as a“lazy” evaluation qualifier. It matches the shortest substring of thepreceding character or group of characters such that the entire stringstill matches the entire regular expression, if possible. When notimmediately following another qualifier, this meta-character means zeroor one of the preceding character or group of characters. \d Any singlecharacter that is a digit. \w Any single character that is eitheralphanumeric or an underscore. [ ] Matches any single character in thebrackets (e.g., [ae] matches regular character a or e, while [a-z]matches single regular characters in the lowercase alphabet). ( ) Groupstogether any two or more meta-characters or regular characters withinthe parenthesis.

Given that related unqualified domain names often follow a pattern thatcan be defined syntactically, regular expressions may be used to specifythese patterns. When two or more nodes in a network map have unqualifieddomain names that match the same regular expression, these nodes may begrouped.

Regular expressions are typically represented as character strings witheach character therein either being a meta-character (having a specialmeaning) or a regular character (having its literal meaning). Commonmeta-characters are introduced in Table 1.

Given that several different sets of regular expression definitionsexist (e.g., in different programming languages), embodiments may relyon any of these definitions. Nonetheless, the examples provided hereinare largely compliant with the ECMASCRIPT® Language Specificationstandard Edition 5.1.

A regular expression may chain together a sequence of meta-charactersand regular characters. For instance, consider the regular expression“{circumflex over ( )}([\w-]+?)\d+[a-z]?$”. This expression (whichincludes only the characters within the quotes) can be described asfollows. The [\w-] part matches any single alphanumeric character,underscore, or dash. Thus, the [\w-]+ part matches one or morealphanumeric characters, underscores, and/or dashes. For example, thestrings “ab-le_” and “z_obr-o” match this part. The [\w-]+? forces lazy(minimal) matching of the [\w-]+part. The ([\w-]+?) part specifies that[\w-]+? part should be treated as a group.

The \d+ part matches one or more digits. The [a-z]? part matches zero orone instances of single regular characters in the lowercase alphabet.All of these expressions are within the {circumflex over ( )} and $,thus meaning that any matched string must be matched in total—from thebeginning to the end. The ? qualifier in the [\w-]+? part forces the[\w-]+expression to match the shortest possible substring, leaving thelargest possible remainder for the \d+[a-z]? part. In this way, thesubstring that is matched by the ([\w-]+?) part is appropriate for thegrouping algorithms described below.

Accordingly, the “{circumflex over ( )}([\w-]+?)\d+[a-z]?$” regularexpression therefore matches a group of zero or more alphanumericcharacters, underscores, and/or dashes, followed by one or more digits,followed by zero or one characters in the lowercase alphabet. Notably,this regular expression matches each of unqualified domain names msrv1,msrv2, msrv3, and msrv4, as well as db0 and db1. Unqualified domainnames maillb and mdbx do not match this string. (In most cases, domainnames are converted to be all lowercase prior to matching them with aregular expression.)

A goal may be to group nodes with unqualified domain names msrv1, msrv2,msrv3, and msrv4, as those domain names are associated with applicationsor devices that perform mail server operations. Another goal may be toseparately group nodes with unqualified domain names db0 and db1, asthose domain names are associated with applications or devices thatperform mail database operations. Therefore, nodes may be grouped basednot only on the regular expressions that they match, but also based onbeing associated with a common application. Accordingly, nodes msrv1,msrv2, msrv3, and msrv4 may be placed into one group, as they all match“{circumflex over ( )}([\w-]+?)\d+[a-z]?$” and are associated withmailbox applications. Additionally, nodes db0 and db1 may be placed in aseparate group, as they all match “{circumflex over( )}([\w-]+?)\d+[a-z]?$” and are associated with database applications.

In some embodiments, two or more regular expressions may be used, eachone potentially defining one or more groups. In general, these multipleregular expressions may be arranged in a particular ordering (e.g., in atext file or in a database), and a node may be grouped based on thefirst regular expression it matches in this ordering. If the node alsomatches a regular expression appearing later in the ordering, thisfurther match may be ignored.

For instance, suppose that it is desirable to group nodes withunqualified domain names db0, db1, and mdbx. A regular expressionmatching these unqualified domain names (e.g., “A[a-z0-9]*db[a-z0-9]+$”)may be defined and placed above “{circumflex over( )}([\w-]+?)\d+[a-z]?$” in an ordering of regular expressions. In thisway, nodes representing all of the database server devices are placed inone group, while nodes representing the mail server devices areseparately grouped. Nonetheless, other possibilities exist, and anynumber of regular expressions may be used for purposes of grouping.

Despite the embodiments herein being focused on grouping of nodes basedon commonalities in their respective domain names, groupings may bebased on other names or designations of nodes. For instance, nodes in amap may be manually or automatically tagged with arbitrary strings(e.g., an application name, a service name, an owner's name, etc.), andthe nodes may be grouped based on regular-expression-based matching ofthese strings. Any data in a CMDB that is associated with a node couldpotentially be used for these purposes.

FIG. 6B depicts the network map of FIG. 6A with nodes grouped accordingto the “{circumflex over ( )}([\w-]+?)\d+[a-z]?$” regular expression.Grouped node 620 represents mailbox applications 602, 604, 606, and 608and grouped node 624 represents mail database applications 610 and 612.Particularly, grouped node 620 is labeled with the text “4×mailbox onmsrv*”. This indicates that grouped node 620 represents four instancesof the mailbox application, and that these instances operate oncomputing devices having unqualified domain names that start with thecommon string “msrv”, but differ afterward. Grouped node 624 is labeledwith the text “2×maildb on db*”. This indicates that grouped node 624represents two instances of the mail database application, and thatthese instances operate on computing devices having unqualified domainnames that start with the common string “db”, but differ afterward.

FIG. 6B also depicts grouping of the edges between grouped nodes andother nodes. For example, the four edges between load balancer 600 andmailbox applications 602, 604, 606, and 608 are represented as a singleedge tagged with the numeral “4”. Similarly, the four edges betweenmailbox applications 602, 604, 606, and 608 and mail database 614 arealso represented as a single edge tagged with the numeral “4”. Further,the eight edges between mailbox applications 602, 604, 606, and 608 andmail database applications 610 and 612 are represented as a single edgetagged with the numeral “8”. By grouping the edges as well as the nodes,the network map as displayed is even more compact, yet still representsthe connectivity between the nodes.

FIG. 6C depicts the network map of FIG. 6A with nodes grouped accordingto an ordering of two regular expressions. In this ordering, the regularexpression “A[_(a-z)0-9]*db[_(a-z)0-9]+$” is above the regularexpression “{circumflex over ( )}([\w-]+?)\d+[a-z]?$”. As a consequence,mail database applications 610, 612, and 614 are represented by groupednode 630. This grouping results in an even more compact representationof the network map. FIG. 6C also depicts the grouping of the twelveedges between mailbox applications 602, 604, 606, and 608 and maildatabase applications 610, 612, and 614 as a single edge tagged with thenumeral “12”.

C. Expanding and Collapsing Grouped Nodes

In both FIGS. 6B and 6C, grouped nodes include a toggle labeled with a“+” in their upper left corners. This toggle may be implemented as a GUIwidget that is user-selectable. When a user triggers such a toggle(e.g., clicking on it with a mouse or selecting it by way of atouchscreen), the associated grouped node may be expanded. For instance,the grouped node may be replaced with the individual nodes itrepresents.

FIG. 6D depicts the network map of FIG. 6C after the toggle associatedwith grouped node 620 has been triggered. Accordingly, grouped node 620is replaced with individual nodes for mailbox applications 602, 604,606, and 608. The connectivity between these individual nodes and loadbalancer 600 is updated to be four separate edges. Further, theconnectivity between these individual nodes and the nodes of maildatabase applications 610, 612, and 614 is also updated to be fourseparate edges. Each of these edges is tagged with the numeral “3”,representing the connectivity between each of mailbox applications 602,604, 606, and 608 and mail database applications 610, 612, and 614.

Moreover, the icon representing mailbox application 602 includes atoggle labelled with a “-” in its upper left corner. This toggle may beimplemented as a GUI widget that is user-selectable. When a usertriggers such a toggle (e.g., clicking on it with a mouse or selectingit by way of a touchscreen), the associated individual nodes may bere-grouped. For instance, the individual nodes may be replaced withgrouped node 620, as in FIG. 6C. Users may repeatedly un-group andre-group grouped nodes by way of this mechanism.

D. Additional Embodiments

In some embodiments, grouping of nodes may only take place if there isat least a threshold number of configuration items (e.g., 10, 15, 20,30, etc.) represented in the map. Further, the remote network managementplatform may support configurable options to enable or disable groupingof nodes globally, or on a per-service or per-application basis. In somecases, individual users may be able to override these preferences withtheir own preferences regarding such grouping.

VI. EXAMPLE OPERATIONS

FIG. 7 is a flow chart illustrating an example embodiment. The processillustrated by FIG. 7 may be carried out by a one or more computingdevices of a computing system, such as instances of computing device100, and/or a cluster of computing devices, such as server cluster 200.However, the process can be carried out by other types of devices ordevice subsystems. For example, the process could be carried out by aportable computer, such as a laptop or a tablet device.

The embodiments of FIG. 7 may be simplified by the removal of any one ormore of the features shown therein. Further, these embodiments may becombined with features, aspects, and/or implementations of any of theprevious figures or otherwise described herein. Additionally, thecontext of these embodiments is not limited to aPaaS architectures,managed networks, or remote network management platforms. Thus, theembodiments herein may be used in various other environments.

A. Probing a Managed Network

Block 700 may involve probing, by a computing system, a managed networkto obtain information related to applications operating on a pluralityof computing devices on the managed network, network connectivity of theplurality of computing devices, and representations of unqualifieddomain names respectively associated with the plurality of computingdevices. In some embodiments, the computing system is disposed within aremote network management platform that manages the managed network. Thecomputing system may scan, classify, identify, and explore the managednetwork in accordance with the discovery procedures described above.

B. Obtaining a Regular Expression

Block 702 may involve obtaining, by the computing system, a regularexpression. The regular expression may include a combination ofmeta-characters and regular characters, and may be obtained from amemory, a database, by way of a network, or by way of user input.

C. Determining Unqualified Domain Names that Match the RegularExpression

Block 704 may involve determining, by the computing system, a subset ofthe plurality of computing devices in the managed network on which aparticular application of the applications is operating and for whichthe respectively associated unqualified domain names match the regularexpression. In some embodiments, the respectively associated unqualifieddomain names that match the regular expression are also associated withthe particular application. In other embodiments, groupings may be basedon other names, tags, or designations of applications.

D. Generating a Map of the Managed Network

Block 706 may involve generating, by the computing system, a map of themanaged network. The applications operating on the plurality ofcomputing devices may be represented as individual nodes in the map, andedges between the individual nodes may be defined based on the networkconnectivity of the plurality of computing devices. The subset of theplurality of computing devices may be represented as a grouped nodeinstead of individual nodes.

E. Providing a Representation of the Map

Block 708 may involve providing, by the computing system and for displayon a client device, a representation of the map. Reception of the map bythe client device may cause the client device to display the map. Someembodiments may further involve receiving, from the client device, anindication that a toggle associated with the grouped node has beenactivated, and providing, for display on the client device, a secondrepresentation of the map in which the grouped node is replaced by aplurality of individual nodes respectively representing the subset ofthe plurality of computing devices.

Alternative or additional embodiments may involve generating a stringrepresenting a common portion of the respectively associated unqualifieddomain names that match the regular expression. The map as displayed mayinclude, for the grouped node, an indication of the particularapplication, an indication of a number of computing devices representedby the grouped node, and an indication of the string.

The string may include the common portion and a wildcard character, thewildcard character representing parts of the respectively associatedunqualified domain names that are not common. The grouped node mayrepresent a plurality of individual nodes, where the computing devicesrepresented by individual nodes are each connected, in the managednetwork, to a computing device represented by a further node, and wherethe map as displayed includes a single connection between the groupednode and the further node. In some embodiments, there are n nodes in theplurality of individual nodes, and the map as displayed labels thesingle connection with a representation of n.

Alternative or additional embodiments may involve obtaining a secondregular expression, where the second regular expression appears afterthe regular expression in an ordering of regular expressions. Theseembodiments may also involve determining a second subset of theplurality of computing devices in the managed network on which a secondparticular application of the applications is operating and for whichthe respectively associated unqualified domain names match the secondregular expression but do not match the regular expression. The secondsubset of the plurality of computing devices may be represented as asecond grouped node instead of individual nodes. This second groupednode may also be toggled to reveal its individual nodes.

VII. CONCLUSION

The present disclosure is not to be limited in terms of the particularembodiments described in this application, which are intended asillustrations of various aspects. Many modifications and variations canbe made without departing from its scope, as will be apparent to thoseskilled in the art. Functionally equivalent methods and apparatuseswithin the scope of the disclosure, in addition to those describedherein, will be apparent to those skilled in the art from the foregoingdescriptions. Such modifications and variations are intended to fallwithin the scope of the appended claims.

The above detailed description describes various features and operationsof the disclosed systems, devices, and methods with reference to theaccompanying figures. The example embodiments described herein and inthe figures are not meant to be limiting. Other embodiments can beutilized, and other changes can be made, without departing from thescope of the subject matter presented herein. It will be readilyunderstood that the aspects of the present disclosure, as generallydescribed herein, and illustrated in the figures, can be arranged,substituted, combined, separated, and designed in a wide variety ofdifferent configurations.

With respect to any or all of the message flow diagrams, scenarios, andflow charts in the figures and as discussed herein, each step, block,and/or communication can represent a processing of information and/or atransmission of information in accordance with example embodiments.Alternative embodiments are included within the scope of these exampleembodiments. In these alternative embodiments, for example, operationsdescribed as steps, blocks, transmissions, communications, requests,responses, and/or messages can be executed out of order from that shownor discussed, including substantially concurrently or in reverse order,depending on the functionality involved. Further, more or fewer blocksand/or operations can be used with any of the message flow diagrams,scenarios, and flow charts discussed herein, and these message flowdiagrams, scenarios, and flow charts can be combined with one another,in part or in whole.

A step or block that represents a processing of information cancorrespond to circuitry that can be configured to perform the specificlogical functions of a herein-described method or technique.Alternatively or additionally, a step or block that represents aprocessing of information can correspond to a module, a segment, or aportion of program code (including related data). The program code caninclude one or more instructions executable by a processor forimplementing specific logical operations or actions in the method ortechnique. The program code and/or related data can be stored on anytype of computer readable medium such as a storage device including RAM,a disk drive, a solid state drive, or another storage medium.

The computer readable medium can also include non-transitory computerreadable media such as computer readable media that store data for shortperiods of time like register memory and processor cache. The computerreadable media can further include non-transitory computer readablemedia that store program code and/or data for longer periods of time.Thus, the computer readable media may include secondary or persistentlong term storage, like ROM, optical or magnetic disks, solid statedrives, compact-disc read only memory (CD-ROM), for example. Thecomputer readable media can also be any other volatile or non-volatilestorage systems. A computer readable medium can be considered a computerreadable storage medium, for example, or a tangible storage device.

Moreover, a step or block that represents one or more informationtransmissions can correspond to information transmissions betweensoftware and/or hardware modules in the same physical device. However,other information transmissions can be between software modules and/orhardware modules in different physical devices.

The particular arrangements shown in the figures should not be viewed aslimiting. It should be understood that other embodiments can includemore or less of each element shown in a given figure. Further, some ofthe illustrated elements can be combined or omitted. Yet further, anexample embodiment can include elements that are not illustrated in thefigures.

While various aspects and embodiments have been disclosed herein, otheraspects and embodiments will be apparent to those skilled in the art.The various aspects and embodiments disclosed herein are for purpose ofillustration and are not intended to be limiting, with the true scopebeing indicated by the following claims.

What is claimed is:
 1. A system comprising: a managed network containinga plurality of computing devices; a remote network management platformconfigured to receive data associated with the plurality of computingdevices through a firewall of the managed network or one or more virtualprivate network (VPN) gateways and store the data on a configurationmanagement database (CMDB); a proxy server device disposed behind thefirewall, the proxy server device containing programming instructionsthat cause the proxy server device to probe and discover computingdevices from the plurality of computing devices by: scanning the managednetwork to: identify the computing devices from the plurality ofcomputing devices included in the managed network; and for at least onecomputing device of the identified computing devices: identify an openport associated with the at least one computing device; and identify anoperating system running on the at least one computing device based onlyon configuration items associated with the open port; classifying the atleast one computing device based on the operating system for the atleast one computing device; automatically sending probe messagesdirectly to the at least one computing device in response to classifyingthe at least one computing device; receiving responses from the at leastone computing device; processing the responses to obtain additionaldetails about the at least one computing device, wherein, for the atleast one computing device, the additional details identify anapplication running on the at least one computing device; generating amap of the managed network, wherein the applications operating on the atleast one computing device are represented as individual nodes in themap, and wherein edges between the individual nodes are defined based onnetwork connectivity of the plurality of computing devices; andtransmitting, via the one or more VPN gateways, at least a portion ofthe map to a client device to display a representation of the map on adisplay of the client device.
 2. The system of claim 1, wherein theprogramming instructions to identify the open port associated with theat least one computing device and identify the operating system runningon the at least one computing device comprise instructions to: probe agroup of IP addresses for open ports; wherein identifying the operatingsystem running on the at least one computing device is performed foreach IP address at which an open port is present.
 3. The system of claim2, wherein the programming instructions to send the probe messages tothe at least one computing device comprise instructions to: for eachcomputing device of the at least one computing device, send a messagethat is specific to the operating system for the computing device. 4.The system of claim 1, wherein the programming instructions that causethe proxy server device to probe and discover the computing devicescomprise instructions to: for each computing device of the at least onecomputing device, generate a snapshot representation of the computingdevice, wherein each snapshot representation comprises the operatingsystem, a version of the operating system, and an application configuredto run on the computing device; and store each snapshot representationto the CMDB.
 5. The system of claim 4, wherein the programminginstructions to generate the snapshot representation of each computingdevice comprise instructions to: for each computing device: identify oneor more other services that rely on the application that is included inthe snapshot representation; and represent the one or more otherservices in the snapshot representation so that an impact on the one ormore other services may be identified when the computing device is takenout of operation.
 6. The system of claim 1, wherein the programminginstructions that cause the proxy server device to probe and discoverthe computing devices comprise instructions to: group a subset of theapplications as a grouped node; and wherein the representation of themap displays the grouped node.
 7. The system of claim 6, whereingrouping the subset of the applications as the grouped node comprisesapplying one or more regular expressions to a plurality of unqualifieddomain names associated with the applications.
 8. A method comprising:causing a proxy server device disposed behind a firewall of a managednetwork to probe and discover computing devices from a plurality ofcomputing devices included in the managed network by: scanning themanaged network to: identify the computing devices from the plurality ofcomputing devices in the managed network; and for at least one computingdevice of the identified computing devices: probing a group of IPaddresses for open ports; and for each IP address at which an open portis present, identifying the open port and, based only on configurationitems associated with the open port, identifying an operating systemrunning on the at least one computing device; classifying the at leastone computing device based on the operating system for the at least onecomputing device; automatically sending probe messages directly to theat least one computing device in response to classifying the at leastone computing device; receiving responses from the at least onecomputing device; processing the responses to obtain additional detailsabout the at least one computing device, wherein, for the at least onecomputing device, the additional details identify an application runningon the at least one computing device; generating a map of the managednetwork, wherein the applications operating on the at least onecomputing device are represented as individual nodes in the map, andwherein edges between the individual nodes are defined based on networkconnectivity of the plurality of computing devices; and transmitting,via one or more virtual private network (VPN) gateways, at least aportion of the map to a client device to display a representation of themap on a display of the client device; and wherein a remote networkmanagement platform is configured to receive data associated with theplurality of computing devices of the managed network from the proxyserver device through the firewall or the one or more virtual privatenetwork (VPN) gateways and store the data on a configuration managementdatabase (CMDB).
 9. The method of claim 8, wherein sending the probemessages to the identified computing devices comprises: for eachcomputing device of the at least one computing device, sending a messagethat is specific to the operating system for the computing device. 10.The method of claim 8, wherein causing the proxy server device to probeand discover the computing devices comprises: for each computing deviceof the at least one computing device, generating a snapshotrepresentation of the computing device, wherein each snapshotrepresentation comprises the operating system, a version of theoperating system, and an application configured to run on the computingdevice; and storing each snapshot representation to the CMDB.
 11. Themethod of claim 10, wherein generating the snapshot representation ofeach computing device comprises: for each computing device: identifyingone or more other services that rely on the application that is includedin the snapshot representation; and representing the one or more otherservices in the snapshot representation so that an impact on the one ormore other services may be identified if the computing device is takenout of operation.
 12. The method of claim 8, wherein causing the proxyserver device to probe and discover the computing devices comprises:grouping a subset of the applications as a grouped node; and wherein therepresentation of the map displays the grouped node.
 13. The method ofclaim 12, wherein grouping the subset of the applications as the groupednode comprises applying one or more regular expressions to a pluralityof unqualified domain names associated with the applications.
 14. Anon-transitory computer readable medium encoded with instructions,which, when executed: cause a proxy server device disposed behind afirewall of a managed network to probe and discover computing devicesfrom a plurality of computing devices included in the managed networkby: scanning the managed network to: identify the computing devices fromthe plurality of computing devices in the managed network; and for atleast one computing device of the identified computing devices: probe agroup of IP addresses for open ports; and for each IP address at whichan open port is present, identify the open port and, based only onconfiguration items associated with the open port, identify an operatingsystem running on the at least one computing device; classifying the atleast one computing device based on the operating system for the atleast one computing device; automatically sending probe messagesdirectly to the at least one computing device in response to classifyingthe at least one computing device; receiving responses from the at leastone computing device; processing the responses to obtain additionaldetails about the at least one computing device, wherein, for the atleast one computing device, the additional details identify anapplication running on the at least one computing device; for eachcomputing device of the at least one computing device: generating asnapshot representation of the computing device, wherein the snapshotrepresentation comprises the operating system, a version of theoperating system, and the application configured to run on the computingdevice; identifying one or more other services that rely on theapplication included in the snapshot representation; representing theone or more other services in the snapshot representation so that animpact on the one or more other services may be identified if theidentified computing device is taken out of operation; and storing thesnapshot representation to a configuration management database (CMDB);generating a map of the managed network, wherein the applicationsoperating on the at least one computing device are represented asindividual nodes in the map, and wherein edges between the individualnodes are defined based on network connectivity of the plurality ofcomputing devices; and transmitting, via one or more virtual privatenetwork (VPN) gateways, at least a portion of the map to a client deviceto display a representation of the map on a display of the clientdevice; and wherein a remote network management platform is configuredto receive data associated with the plurality of computing devices ofthe managed network from the proxy server device through the firewall orthe one or more virtual private network (VPN) gateways and store thedata on the CMDB.
 15. The non-transitory computer readable medium ofclaim 14, wherein sending the probe messages to the at least onecomputing device comprises: for each computing device of the at leastone computing device, sending a message that is specific to theoperating system for the computing device.
 16. The non-transitorycomputer readable medium of claim 14, wherein causing the proxy serverdevice to probe and discover computing devices included in the managednetwork including the plurality of computing devices comprises: groupinga subset of the applications as a grouped node; and wherein therepresentation of the map displays the grouped node.
 17. Thenon-transitory computer readable medium of claim 16, wherein groupingthe subset of the applications as the grouped node comprises applyingone or more regular expressions to a plurality of unqualified domainnames associated with the applications.